Key Points
- Visa and Artemis predict that cards will be used for large purchases in AI agent payments, while stablecoins will be used for micropayments.
- Traditional card transaction fees are found to be too costly for inter-software payments under 1 dollar.
- As of April 21 data, companies detected approximately 15 million dollars in real transaction volume via the x402 protocol.
- The uncertainty regarding the responsibility for erroneous transactions by AI agents is shown as the biggest unsolved problem in the payment ecosystem.
By the Numbers
A new report prepared by Visa and blockchain analytics company Artemis predicts that payment cards and stablecoins will assume different functions in payments made by artificial intelligence agents (AI agents). While traditional card systems will be used for larger transactions such as travel reservations or subscription management on behalf of humans; it is stated that cryptocurrency will be more suitable for low-value transactions such as inter-software data or processing power purchases.
Fixed transaction fees in the credit card infrastructure make micropayments under 1 dollar economically unfeasible. Instead, the cost of transactions made on blockchain networks like Base and Solana is only at the level of a fraction of a cent. The report evaluates that open payment systems such as x402 and Machine Payments Protocol (MPP) can be used for these micropayments, and a hybrid model can be adopted.
According to the report, the biggest issue that needs to be solved in the payment systems of artificial intelligence agents is trust. The question of who will be responsible for erroneous or unauthorized purchases (the user, the platform operator, the model developer, or the merchant) currently remains uncertain. Since existing chargeback rules were designed for humans, there is no established mechanism yet for disputing thousands of automated transactions per hour. Additionally, the risk that malicious prompts could push artificial intelligence to make unwanted payments is emphasized.
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Frequently Asked Questions
- How are cards and stablecoins differentiated in AI agent payments?
- Payment cards are used for high-value purchases like travel bookings made on behalf of humans, while low-cost stablecoins are expected to be used for transactions under 1 dollar, such as inter-program data queries.
- Why are traditional card systems not suitable for AI micropayments?
- Fixed transaction fees in the card infrastructure increase the cost of very small transactions unnecessarily, making them economically unfeasible. In contrast, blockchain networks can process these transactions much more cheaply.
- What is the biggest problem arising in payments by AI agents?
- Lack of trust. In the event of an erroneous or unauthorized automated purchase, it is not clear whether the responsibility lies with the user, the developer, or the platform, and this situation creates difficulties in dispute mechanisms.
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